It’s a crock as large as Colorado. It’s a line of bull longer than the Rockies, piled taller than Mile High. They could put ski lifts on it, mine it for silver.

Thinkers who can’t think on a dime come up with this crap. They need something to say, even if it’s stupid. At least make sense in moments of inanity. And so much of this manure comes from people who played football for a living, people who should know better but have found edgewise and have to get a word in it.

I spent time Sunday watching TV’s talking headaches after the Chargers’ 27-10 Wild Card playoff win over the Bengals. I heard the Chargers “had nothing to lose” in Cincinnati and will “have nothing to lose” in this Sunday’s division playoff game in Denver.

Fact is: They had and have everything to lose.

They had everything to lose and nothing to gain if they got beat in Cincinnati and it will be the same if they fall to Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

If they lose, do they get a chance to play again? No. If they lose, do they remain in the Super Bowl tournament? No. If they lose, can they hold their heads high and be proud of just getting close? No.

In the end, there will be 31 losers, some with better records, but losers all the same. They shouldn’t be pleased.

Thinking seems to be that, when a team such as the Chargers wins its last four games of the regular season and gets lucky with a missed Chiefs field goal and losses by the clubs that could have gone into January ahead of them, it should be happy just making the cut.

The Chargers should be happy. But if they had everything to lose when they had to win the rest of their games to get in, when Baltimore and Miami had to collapse the final two weeks, why is it different now? It isn’t.

Philip Rivers is at his amped-up, animated best. We were discussing this subject outside the Chargers’ media center Monday afternoon and the quarterback was talking fast, waving his arms. He seemed pleased to be broaching something other than what unhappily has become his signature bolo tie.

“Yeah, just getting in doesn’t mean there are any guarantees, as we well know,” he said. “You’re playing for the same trophy everybody’s playing for. It means something where you’re seeded, but other than that, it’s a clean slate. Two teams. Who’s going to play the best for 60 minutes?

“Nothing to lose? Yeah, there’s something to lose _ you lose your opportunity to win a championship, and it doesn’t mean a thing if you went 13-3 or 9-7 like we did. There are just eight of us now. Just being there doesn’t matter. You have to win.”

Now there’s a big difference between having nothing to lose and being loose. They’re not to be confused. The Chargers are on the road for this tournament. They will be underdogs all the way through.